James Harrison, 1st Earl Harrison
Sir James Steven Harrison, 1st Earl Harrison CBE BEM FRSA FNCM FISM DMus FRSM MMW (Chinese: 胡鄉萬; born February 6, 1996) is an English–Chinese–Danish singer-songwriter, record producer, actor, screen writer, film producer, actor, stand-up comedian and professional wrestler. Harrison began his career in 2007 as the first British winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, something his backed up in 2009. Harrison released his debut album Listen, in 2012 is believed to have sold around 100 million copies making it the best-selling album of all-time. Harrison is also the drummer for In This Moment and former rhythm guitarist for the band. Harrison has achieved a record 50 UK number one singles as a solo artist. He is recognised as earning 67 number ones as this factors in his twelve with In This Moment and two charity singles as part of Band Aid 30 and Artists for Grenfell. He currently ranks as one of the best-selling music artists of all-time with over 900 million sales. Harrison has appeared in Time 's 100 most influential people in the world every year since 2014 and has topped Forbes Celebrity 100 every year since 2014. He is considered the most-followed celebrity online with 130 million Twitter followers 197 million instagram followers, 201 million likes on his official Facebook page and 101 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. He is one of only four Asian artists along with Esther and Abi Ofraim and PSY to achieve a UK number one and the only Chinese artist, he is the second Danish artist after Aqua to achieve a number one. In wrestling Harrison performs for various promotions, he currently holds the IWGP United States, Progress Atlas, RPW British Heavyweight and WWE Universal Championships in his first reign. He also holds the ROH World Tag Team Championship alongside Jay White, in his second reign. Harrison also won the G1 Climax in 2018 and has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a celebrity. Upon his ROH debut in 2016 he joined the Bullet Club stable aligning himself with The Elite until betraying the group and joining the Bullet Club OGs. Early Life Harrison was born in Burton upon Trent, on 6 February 1996. Harrison spent his early years in the small village of Tutbury just outside Burton upon Trent, before moving to Burton in 2001. Harrison has a twin sister Scarlett, an older sister Charlotte, two younger sisters in Freya and Victoria and a younger brother Matthew. Harrison's parents are Steven, from Derby and Amanda from Burton upon Trent. Harrison's family traces its roots to both Ireland and the United States, though it remains unknown whether his family were native American or part of European settlers. Harrison's high school education took place at Paulet High School where he along all of his siblings achieved A* Grades in all subjects he studied. Career '2007–11: Junior Eurovision success' '2011–12: ''Listen After signing for EMI Records in 2011 Harrison began recording he debut album stating that it would be a pop rock genre of album vagly similar to Maroon 5. Harrison had to mix in GCSE's with the recording of the album and said that was the reason the album took 14 months to record. Harrison said the writing of the album was quite easy and took less than a month but juggling GCSE's and recording was difficult. He said it was difficult to keep it secret from people at his school. A week prior to the release of his debut single "Lucky Strike" he previewed it to his school year group. He said in an interview that he was proud of the album and he planned to release several singles. In the recording despite constant efforts Harrison had no help at all other than on the recording "Payphone" which featured vocals from rapper Wiz Khalifa. This would also be his second single from the album. The album was released in August 2012, by this point he had already released four singles earning himself three number one singles only "One More Night" failed to reach the summit of the UK charts peaking at number two. The album was a huge commercial succes selling 6 million copies in the UK alone and an estimate 50 million worldwide. It earned 5 million sales in Japan becoming the third best-selling of all-time in Japan and the best-selling in the country by a foriegn artist. Its 50 million sales ranks it as the joint second best-selling album of all-time, joint with Back to Black by AC/DC and The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and behind only Thriller ''(65m) by Michael Jackson. The 6 million sales in the UK ranks it joint best-selling in the UK with ''Greatest Hits ''by Queen. After its release Harrison released a further three singles all reached the top three and the final single "Wipe Your Eyes" remains his best-selling single with around 22.5 million worldwide sales and is the most downloaded track of all-time with around 18.9 million downloads. The album received ten Grammy Award nominations and it won all the awards, making it the most honored album in Grammy Awards history. "Wipe Your Eyes" collected three of these awards. '2013: Apocalypse and global super stardom Around a month after the recording of Listen ''was completed Harrison began writing for a follow up album. He began recording November 2012 and released the first song from the album "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You" in April 2013. Two days after the released Harrison announced he has called the album ''Apocalypse and had a planned release date of October 20, 2013. In an interview with Jay Leno he said he was to work with Adele and Beyoncé on the recording of two songs. He also confirmed in the writing he would be working with Justin Timberlake, Paul Epworth, Gary Barlow, Leona Lewis, R. Kelly and Taio Cruz along with Adele and Beyoncé. He released "Recovery" as a second single in June, the song reached number one on the UK charts after "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You" reached number two. He released the album on the planned date of October 20 and also his song "Certain Things" on the same date which was a collaboration with Beyoncé. This reached number one in the UK and US. He also stated that he would released "Smoke Clouds" and "Emergency" at towards the end of 2013. This album made Harrison a super star worldwide as his previous album he made him big worldwide, this made him huge. This album was also highly honored at the 2014 Grammy Awards picking up seven awards from nine nominations. "Recovery" also picked up two wins from its three nominations, yet again he won Best Music Video for "Emergency". He won for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Recording Package and Best Engineered Album, non-classical. '2014: ''The King, Rock Covers ''and ''Xscape Harrison began 2014 by announcing he had recorded a cover album of Michael Jackson's songs, and its lead single "Bad" was to be released on January 2. The album was released on February 9 and debuted at number one and following its release it was highly praised critics as his best albums ever and one of the best ever albums. To date he has released eight singles and all have reached number one. The album was highly successful reaching number one every where it was released. To date it has sold over a million copies in Canada, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US. "Man in the Mirror" is the best selling single from the album with worldwide sales of around 12.5 million. In April 2014 he announced plans to record and release a cover album of Love songs in late 2014. He will release an album in 2015 which is an original album entitled Electric Pulse. ''After releasing the eight singles from ''The King album he released a cover of Creed's "With Arms Wide Open" in April 2014. In April 2014 he released a six-track EP Rock Covers from which he released covers of "With Arms Wide Open" and Linkin Park's "Powerless". This album debuted at number one on the UK albums chart making Harrison only the second artist after The Beatles to replace themselves on the UK albums chart. He announced that he would release a fourth album towards the end of 2014 entitled Xscape ''which will see him revert to pop rock with a Michael Jackson feel to it. '2015: Into the Abyss, ''Electric Pulse ''and a transition into rock In May 2014 Harrison announced he was recorded a fifth studio album[[ Electric Pulse| Electric Pulse]] he said that this album would be completely different to anything that he had ever done before as it would be recorded in a rock/nu metal genre. The album which is set for release in early 2015 was finished in late July 2014 and contains twelve tracks and features the likes of Rakim, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Dave Grohl, he also worked alongside Metallica in songwriting. He did state it wouldn't be permanent and that a cover album of his favourite songs which saw him make a transition into hip hop. He was originally to record Simply the Best ''a cover of many different song but this was scrapped in favour of ''Into the Abyss an original pop album and instead of that being released in November and Electric Pulse ''in February the release dates were switched around. At the end of November 2014 ''V ''was renamed ''Into the Abyss ''as Harrison believed calling your fifth album V was to cliched. On the New Years Honours list released on December 31, 2014 Harrison was awarded an OBE following his 15 number ones in 2014, overtaking Elvis' record of number ones and his £50 million charity donations during 2014. His album ''Into the Abyss ''sold in excess of 2 million copies in its opening week, he would on February 27, 2015 sign a record deal with RCA Records but stated he would remain with EMI Records. He is also set to sign with Asylum Records as well and will release ''Evolution ''on these Asylum and RCA. He will release ''#1's ''in June 2015 which will feature the theme track for WrestleMania 31, "Day of the Dead" which will feature Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington. Harrison also recorded "Warriors" which was released as the official song of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup and will feature on his seventh album, the song will also be used as the theme song for the 2015 edition of the WWE pay-per view Survivor Series. Harrison also achieved the highest grossing tour of all-time his tour The One Stop Wonder Tour that began in June 2014 ending in November 2015 grossed just over $1.14 billion and saw over 21 million people attend, his final five performances saw seven million people turn up. It was announced in early 2015 that Harrison had worked with Broadway actor Lin-Manuel Miranda to co-write songs for his upcoming musical ''Hamilton ''which would go on to win 11 Tony Awards from a record 16 nominations. '2016: Eurovision ''winner' In 2015 Harrison announced his seventh album V1.0 which would see a mixture of pop, soul and pop rock. The lead single "Warriors" was released in July 2015 for the Women's World Cup and is expected to have several follow-up singles throughout 2016, the album itself will be released on January 3, 2016. He was awarded a CBE in the 2016 New Years Honours after his charity work continued and surpassed £100 million. In February 2016 Harrison confirmed that V2.0 ''would be a metalcore album via Twitter this turned out to a joke as he performed new tracks at the 2016 Brit Awards which saw him return to his original pop rock genre. Harrison was announced in late February to be the UK's entry into the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. He announced a week later he would perform "Hallelujah" the track was released three days prior to the contest and was tipped to finish in the top five, the song itself charted in the top ten in the UK and US despite on fourty-eight hours on sale. At the contest the song ranked first with 605 points, most of which came from the jury votes where he finished first but third with the public but would claim victory over the Ukraine by 71 points. He also set a record for most sets of 12 points awarded with 22, most of which (18) came from the juries. He scored two sets of 12 points from Ireland, Bulgaria, Israel and Montenegro. The song won all the awards prior to the contest, the Artistic, Composer and Press Marcel Bezençon Awards it also won the OGAE Award. After this he revealed some tracks for his upcoming album ''Destiny ''Harrison stated he was planning to stay in the hard rock genre for a while. On March 18 Harrison became the first person in UK chart history to hold the entire top five singles with "The Sound of Silence" at number one, "Fight for Love" #2, "My Own" #3, "Make You Mine" #4 and "Look Over Your Shoulder" #5. On June 16 Harrison announced he had left Virgin EMI and RCA Records and signed with Syco Records whilst remaining with Asylum Records. '2017–present: Transition to rock and horror themes' In 2016 Harrison released the album ''Prayers for the Damned, Vol. 1 ''stating that he was to remain a rock performer for the foreseeable future and began infusing horror themes into his music videos and performances to give them a different edge to his usual performances. On November 19, 2016 it was revealed by Harrison's sister Scarlett that Harrison had signed to Decca Records and had ditched Syco Music after less than 6 months. Harrison would later record the theme tune for NXT superstar Aleister Black entitled "Root of All Evil". On May 13, 2017 Harrison won the Eurovision Song Contest for a second time with a record 802 points and joined Irish singer Johnny Logan as the only people to win the contest twice. Harrison announced on June 29, 2017 he was to begin releasing more regular music confirming a further 13 ''Rock Covers ''EPs being released in 2017 alone, a collaborative album with American guitarist Buckethead, a compilation album and a halloween special of 31 mixtapes one released every day in the build up to the event. Harrison also stated this would become a regular occurance with him planning on releasing 10-15 more albums with Buckethead over the next 18 months and at least 20 ''Rock Covers EPs and 30-60 mixtapes during that time period as well, the albums with Buckethead and the mixtapes will all be original music written months prior to recording. In July 2017 after all the tracks from Harrison's album ESC: The Best ''charted in the top 100 he became the first person in history to have 200 songs hit the top 100. Harrison also recorded and released another theme for a WWE superstar "I Bring the Darkness (End of Days)", the theme for Baron Corbin, Harrison also stated he inserted insults towards the Kardashian Family in the song. Thanks to his work as The Villain a masked guitarist Harrison became the first artist to achieve 300 hot 100 singles as all of The Villain's 100 singles have reached the top 100. In December 2017 Harrison announced his departure from ''The X Factor after two series. He announced it in a lengthy twitter statement less than two hours after the final had finished stating he wanted to focus on his music career, that he had told Simon Cowell he would be leaving before the final aired and that he had grown tried and frustrated with the show. In 2018 following continued success following his transition to rock and metal music Harrison announced he would be focusing on metal music over hard rock. On May 12, 2018 Harrison won the Eurovision Song Contest for a third consecutive year, giving the UK their eighth overall victory and Harrison's fourth. In the 2019 New Years Honours list Harrison became the youngest person to receive at knighthood at just 22 but he will be 23 upon officially receiving the honour. Artistry Harrison's music is mainly hard rock and alternaive metal, with various different mental genres featuring throughout his songs. Harrison's music was pop rock and R&B around the start of his career before transitioning into rock around the end of 2014 into early 2015. Harrison has said to be mainly influenced by Queen and numerous metal bands including the likes of Metallica, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. On stage persona Harrison stated in 2015 he had an on stage persona known simply as "The Villain" which is losely based upon the wrestling character of British wrestler Marty Scurll. Harrison is occassionally seen with a plague doctor mask and a Marty Scurll t-shirt on, he also uses the persona in his darker music videos during the rock phase of his career. In 2017 Harrison began releasing music under "The Villain" stage name where he performed instrumental tracks whilst keeping the mask on. Eurovision ;Table key Discography , James Harrison albums discography, James Harrison production discography or The Villain discography ;Solo albums *''Listen'' (2012) *''Apocalypse'' (2013) *''The King'' (2014) *''Xscape'' (2014) *''Into the Abyss'' (2015) *''Electric Pulse'' (2015) *''V1.0 (2016) *V2.0 (2016) *Prayers for the Damned'' (2017) *''Prayers for the Blessed'' (2017) *''The TakeOver (2018) *Erwarte Gewalt'' (2018) *''End of Days'' (2018) *''Niflheim'' (2018) *''Revelations'' (2019) *''Phoenix'' (2019) Football In June 2017 it was reported that Harrison was interested in buying his hometown football club Burton Albion and days later it was announced he had offered £25 million to buy the club. A few weeks later Harrison announced via twitter he had bought the club and was keeping both Ben Robinson and Nigel Clough on as chairman and manager respectively. It was later revealed Harrison bought the club for £40 million. Professional wrestling 'WWE (2014–present)' In 2014 Harrison began working with the WWE producing theme songs for their pay-per-view events including for four consecutive WrestleMania's from 31 to 34. He has also written entrance themes for several wrestlers and has provided the vocals to the themes of Baron Corbin and Aleister Black. He has also been seen at ringside for several pay-per-view events. In 2018 following his continued relationship behind the scenes and as a celebrity guest Harrison was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in their celebrity wing. On the August 20, 2018 episode of Raw Harrison made his in ring WWE debut appearing in a mask and hitting the new Universal Champion Roman Reigns with a superkick before taking out Reigns' Shield teammates Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins before removing his mask. Harrison faced Reigns in a Hell in a Cell match at the pay-per-view of the same name in September 2018 where he won winning the WWE Universal Championship, becoming the first Hall of Famer to win a world title after his induction, first to simultaneously hold a NJPW and WWE title and the first to simultaneously hold a ROH and WWE title. 'Ring of Honor (2017–present)' In 2017 Harrison also began working with Ring of Honor's music department until 2018 when he began making in-ring appearances in which he joined the Bullet Club. On June 29, 2018 Harrison teamed up with Bullet Club stable mate Cody at ROH's pay-per-view Best in the World to defeat The Briscoe's to win the ROH Tag Team Championship. 'New Japan Pro Wrestling (2018–present)' Harrison made his NJPW debut at New Year Dash!! on January 5, 2018. At Dominion 6.9 in June 2018 Harrison competed in a three-way match against defending champion Hirooki Goto and Michael Elgin for the NEVER Openweight Championship, which was won by Elgin when he pinned Goto. Harrison defeated Jay White in July 2018 at the G1 Special in San Francisco to win the IWGP United States Championship, his first singles title in his career. He then took part in his first G1 Climax in 2018, becoming the first wrestler to win all nine block matches, before winning the final against Kota Ibushi. He was also the second non-Japanese winner of the tournament under the G1 name, and the first British winner under all names. As the winner Harrison will face IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega for the title at Wrestle Kingdom 13 in January 2019. 'In Wrestling' *'Finishing moves' **Superkick – sometimes whilst jumping **''Bullet Clip'' (Running or spinning knee strike) – 2016–2018; used as a signature thereafter **''Final Conquest'' (Sit-out chickenwing facebuster) – 2018–present **''Dragon Twister (Spinning cutter) – 2018–present *'Signature moves''' **Armbar **Brainbuster **Clothesline – usually used as a counter to a running opponent **Frog Splash **''Jewel Heist'' (Hammerlock into a lariat) – adopted from Chase Owens **Multiple suplex variants ***Belly-to-belly ***''Black Plague'' (Inverted) ***Dragon ***German ***Snap ***Super **''Night Clip'' (Military press gutbuster) **Shooting Star Press **''Silver Spoon DDT'' (Flowing DDT) – adopted from Cody **Sunset flip powerbomb **''Tombstone Piledriver'' (Kneeling reverse piledriver) – sometimes whilst spinning/leaping **Triangle choke *'Nicknames' **'"The King of Darkness"' *'Entrance Themes' **"Son of Odin" by Celestial Sphere (2017 – October 1, 2018) **'"Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags"' by Amon Amarth (October 8, 2018 – present) 'Championships and Accomplishments' *'Impact Wrestling' **Impact World Championship (1 time; current) *'New Japan Pro Wrestling' **IWGP Heavyweight Championships (1 time; current) **IWGP United States Championship (1 time) **G1 Climax (2018) *'Progress Wrestling' **Progress Atlas Championship (1 time; current) *'Revolution Pro Wrestling' **RPW British Heavyweight Championship (1 time; current) *'Ring of Honor' **ROH World Tag Team Championship (2 times; current) – with Cody (1) and Jay White (1; current) *''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' **6 Star Match (2018) vs. Kota Ibushi on August 12 **5 Star Match (2018) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on July 14 **5 Star Match (2018) vs. Michael Elgin on July 27 **5 Star Match (2018) vs. Kazuchika Okada on August 2 *'WWE' **WWE Universal Championship (1 time; current) **WWE Hall of Fame (2018) – celebrity wing Filmography Controversies and feuds :Main article: James Harrison Controversies and feuds Band timeline *In This Moment (2014–present) *Hollywood Undead (2015–present) *The Cult (2015–present) *The Darkness (2016–present) *N.T.S. (2017–present) Philanthropy For a number of years Harrison has supported numerous charities and causes, notably investing in a music programme for young children and into the Hasseblad photography company. Though an official figure does not exist it is believed Harrison could have donated over $1.5 billion into various causes, Harrison has confirmed he does not know the figure but believes it is over $1 billion. Following Harrison's upturn in profits and net worth to in excess of $100 billion in 2018 it was believed his charitable donations had also dramatically increased to as much as $10 billion. Personal Life 'Relationships' : See Also: Wedding of James Harrison and Perrie Edwards Harrison briefly dated Danish singer Emmelie de Forest in 2013 prior to his relationship with Kendall Jenner. Since the break-up the two have remained very good friends. Harrison was engaged to American model Kendall Jenner, the engagement lasted for around two months and they had been a couple for nearly 2 and a half years, but with Jenner's mother trying to split the couple up it led them to there own personal battles and they would eventually break up in early May 2015. This was seemingly confirmed in April 2015 after Harrison deleted a tweet about the engagement and Jenner deleted an instagram post showing the ring. Harrison was regularly seen with Little Mix towards the end of his engagement even at times spending more time with them then Kendall, this has led people to believe he is dating one of their band members. Following his break up from Jenner rumours began surfacing that he was dating Little Mix member Perrie Edwards just two weeks after her engagement with Zayn Malik was called off, Harrison did confirm he had a new girlfriend but didn't reveal her identity. On the August 17, 2015 episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden Edwards confirmed that the pair were know in a relationship. Harrison would confirm in late October 2015 that the pair had moved in together following a break in Harrison's The One Stop Wonder Tour. Harrison revealed in November 2015 that Perrie and himself had broken up from their previous engagements long before it became known to the public, as early as late May. Edwards revealed in November 2015 that the couple had got engaged after dating for about 5 months. After about four weeks of being engaged Harrison and Edwards married in early December 2015. 'Children' Harrison's first children were born to Emmelie de Forest during their relationship in 2012, they had twin girls, Nicole and Natalie. On March 21, 2014, Kendall Jenner gave birth to the couples first and only child Caitlyn Rose Harrison, after the couple broke up Harrison took full custody of their daughter. On February 26, 2016 Lucy Johnson, a girl Harrison dated prior to Perrie Edwards, gave birth to his second daughter Brianna Marie Harrison who James took full custody of. Harrison announced in January 2018 that Edwards was heavily pregnant with their first child together and it was due later that month, Edwards gave birth to twins Luke James and Amelia Perrie just a few days later. Despite denying Edwards was pregnant again in late 2018 he confirmed in January 2019 that they were expecting their third child together. He confirmed on January 20 Perrie had given birth to a daughter Viktoriya Evgeniya Kseniya. See Also *List of James Harrison feuds *List of British billionaires by net worth *The World's Billionaires *List of awards and nominations received by James Harrison *List of people who have won multiple Academy Awards in a single year *List of people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards Category:James Harrison Category:1996 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century English singers Category:Brit Award winners Category:English singers Category:English songwriters Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English people of American descent Category:Grammy Award winners Category:EMI Records artists Category:People from Burton upon Trent Category:English billionaires Category:Singers with a six-octave or greater vocal range Category:English hard rock singers Category:English industrial metal singers Category:English gothic metal singers Category:English alternative metal singers Category:English electronic metal singers Category:English heavy metal singers Category:English death metal singers Category:English black metal singers